Police have made progress in the July 28 murder case, in which a couple from Gujranwala was found with bullet wounds in Karachi’s China Port area. The murdered woman’s brother, Waqas, has been taken into custody. He has admitted to plotting the homicide.
Waqas said during his interrogation that his cousin Asim and others travelled from Punjab to Karachi on July 19 to track down his sister Sana Asif, 25, and her husband Sajid Masih, 28, and hire contract killers to murder the couple.
The suspects returned to Lahore on July 25, three days before the bodies were found. Asim had assured Waqas that “the job would be done in a day or two”. South Zone police chief Asad Raza confirmed the arrest of Waqas, who is in the custody of the Gujranwala police. He said the Sindh police have written to the Punjab government to request Waqas’s custody.
DIG Raza said that while Waqas remains in the Gujranwala police’s custody, the Karachi police were granted permission to interrogate him, and he made some key admissions. Waqas reportedly told the police that his family was enraged because Masih, who worked as a sweeper, had eloped with Sana. Waqas and others had allegedly already torched Masih’s house in Gujranwala.
DIG Raza said Waqas conspired with Asim, who has a criminal record, with previous arrests in other cases in Gujranwala. They also enlisted the help of Asim’s friend Imran and another man, namely Mustansar.
While Waqas did not travel to Karachi, he sent Asim and his accomplices to execute the plot. Their original plan was to hire a contract killer for the double murder. When Masih and Sana had arrived in Karachi, they first visited the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, accompanied by Ehtisham, who is already nominated in a previous kidnapping case involving Sana.
Ehtisham contacted his relative Babar, then the group went to Nusrat Bhutto Colony, where Babar and another man, namely Naeem, hosted the couple, who stayed for approximately five days.
The officer said the couple eventually left Nusrat Bhutto Colony around midnight and reached the Boat Basin area, where the murder plan was executed. Police are trying to determine exactly how and by whom the plan was executed, he added.
He said the police are using technical methods, including geo-fencing, to trace movements and identify all those involved. “We’re investigating who actually fired the shots and who helped lure or transport Sana and Sajid to the final location.”
He claimed that it is possible that Waqas and his associates also roped in Ehtisham and his network to execute the murders. He pointed out that the investigation is still in a sensitive phase, and that no possibility is being ruled out.
The documents found near the bodies included a nikahnama and Masih’s certificate of conversion to Islam. The police investigation and the recovered evidence has confirmed that the couple had eloped from Gujranwala to Karachi, where Masih converted to Islam on July 20, then married Sana on July 22.
Masih’s family arrived in Karachi the day after the double homicide. His mother expressed ignorance of his marriage to Sana, and voiced fears for the safety of her family.
Published in News Daily on 01-August-2025.